Degas, Edgar

(1834-1917) (Hilaire-Germain-Edgar de Gas)

   painter, pastelist, sketcher, and engraver

   Born in Paris to a family of bankers, Edgar Degas, as he is known, studied law before he took up painting. In 1859, he traveled to Italy, where he copied the works of the Quatrocentrists. Degas's first works were on historical themes (Semiramis Building Babylon, 1861) and portraits that show Ingres's influence but also Degas's personal style (The Belleli Family, 1858-67). Abandoning academic conventions, Degas came under the influence of naturalism and photography, and was inspired by Japanese prints. About 1868 he became part of the group that met at the Café Guerbois and included Edouard manet,(Portrait of Manet, 1864) auguste renoir, and claude monet. With them, in 1874 Degas took part in the first impressionist exhibit. Like Monet, who influenced him, he had an acute sense of modernist style, represented in his scenes of everyday life, street scenes, and the world of horse racing (Before the Start, 1862) and the stage (Mlle Fiocre in the Ballet "La Source," 1868). Following a visit to the United States (1872-73), he painted Cotton Merchants in New Orleans (1873), which showed his naturalistic style. He had a passion for the world of dance (Dancer Taking a Bow, 1878; Dancer at the Bar, 1880) and produced works showing the effect of artificial light devoid of all idealism. He had an exceptional ability to capture the rapid gestures and the particular characteristics of his subjects. In portraying dressmakers and women ironing, (1882-83), he approached stylistically certain works of honoré daumier, while works such as Women at Their Toilette (1885-98) evoke instead the lifestyle of henri de toulouse-lautrec. Suffering from vision problems, Degas had a preference for pastels, working with crayon and gouache as well as with paints. Painted from memory, his works show a free and audacious style and are more suggestive than descriptive, often having the quality of rough sketches. Influenced by Japanese art, Degas sought unusual modes of presentation for his subjects, decentralized, with planes oblique and sloped, or straight scenes, and in doing so helped to end traditional perspective in painting (The Tub, 1866; After the Bath, 1898). paul valéry would dedicate an essay on painting (Degas, danse, dessin, 1936) to the works of Degas.